Big Brother's First Shave

He was screaming like he'd cut off his arm. He hurtled into the bathroom, and on seeing the extent of the damage, hysteria reined.

While mentally rehearsing my 111 call - emergency service required? fire engine? ambulance ? - I jumped and followed the noise and found him hunched over on the bathroom floor, rocking, sobbing, with his hands covering his head and tears pouring down his cheeks. I registered shock and horror on his face, but - no blood ? Only, a trail of whispy blonde hair.

(Emergency service required?  - Umm, - hairdresser?)

With calm (a-list parenting) voices we soothed his shock and convinced him to show us his head. We both burst into gales of laughter. He looked liked a muppet crossed with a straight haired poodle crossed with a landing strip in the jungle. We tried to stop laughing as he buried himself into his father's arms and sobbed.

Big Brother had discovered Dad's electric head shaving machine, conveniently plugged in by the computer, and thought to himself - I wonder what that feels like? One Buzzzzzzzzzzz later...

'I can't go to school', he sobbed. 'Everyone will laugh at me! No one will be my friend!'

'It's ok', I told him,  (pushing through the overwhelming funniness of it all) - 'You know, some people lose all their hair, and have bald heads and don't even get to choose. Like, when Doffa (their grandmother) was sick she had some medicine that made her hair fall out. And, (I thought, might as well go the whole hog), there are children who get sick with cancer who have to have medicine that make's their hair fall out, too.'

'But everyone will laugh at me', he ignored me and re-focussed on himself (acting like a total child, no sign of empathy or frontal lobes likely for another 20 years)

'Ok', I said, ' how about this. We will take a photo of your haircut, and post it on facebook. We will tell our friends the story and say you are scared to shave the rest off and don't want to go to school tomorrow. We will suggest to our friends that if they sponsor you - give money - to be brave and shave off the rest of your hair, then we will donate all the money to the Child Cancer foundation. That way, you can help other kids that are really sick and need help, and be brave.'

So we did, and the next morning we had pledges for over two hundred dollars! Of course he refused to let me come within 10 m with the shaver. Finally we agreed that he couldn't leave it how it was, and it at least needed a fix up job. I shaved his head with a number 4 all over, and then put two skin stripes through that closely resembled a hot cross bun. And amazingly not only did it satisfy him, his little brother wanted the same doo! 

Big brother wore a hat to school for a week, but Little brother reveled in the drama of it all. He wanted to go again, so we shaved a big NZ on his remaining hair in honor of our Olympic athletes. They were the talk of the school, famous at the rugby club and kings at the bus stop. And, we are proud to say, we raised over $300 for the Child Cancer Foundation. 

Here is the link to Big Brother talking about his experience on you tube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HisYZj4Kt3U